The British Foreign Secretary, Mr Robin Cook, yesterday acknowledged the gravity of the crisis facing his government about the alleged shipment of arms to Sierra Leone. Mr Cook predicted that resignations would follow if it was proved that he and his Ministers were guilty of wrongdoing.
Mr Cook mounted a robust defence of his Ministers including Mr Tony Lloyd, who admitted last week that he had made errors in his evidence to a Commons select committee investigating the allegations.
"If Ministers are found to have been at error, if they have knowingly misled the House of Commons or if they have adopted the wrong policy, then they must take the consequences," Mr Cook told BBC's Breakfast with Frost programme. Pointing out that "I have nothing to hide", he said he was keen that the independent inquiry into the row be "full and open."
He denied that Mr Lloyd had offered to resign over the affair saying: "No, it's quite wrong. There has never been any question of Tony Lloyd resigning."
At the centre of the allegations are two British companies, Sandline International, a military consultancy firm, and Sky Air Cargo Services UK, and the west-African state of Sierra Leone. The UN Security Council imposed sanctions on this tiny country last May after a military junta ousted the democratically-elected President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah. The coup forced Mr Kabbah, his supporters and the British High Commissioner for Sierra Leone, Mr Peter Penfold, into near exile in the north of the country. Earlier this year, while the British government continued to finance Mr Kabbah's exiled government, the high commissioner met representatives from Sandline International who outlined their plan to restore Mr Kabbah to power. However, it is not known at what level of the British government these talks were sanctioned, if at all. Further reports indicate that when Sandline International contacted officials at the Foreign Office for clearance to supply arms to a group attempting to overthrow Sierra Leone's military junta, the wording of the UN's sanctions was misinterpreted. It was believed that the UN arms embargo barred shipments to the military junta but not to any other group. In February, Nigerian forces crossed into Sierra Leone and captured the capital, Freetown, paving the way for Mr Kabbah's return to power and rendering the supply of arms unnecessary.
But not before British Customs and Excise officials had begun an investigation into Sandline International's alleged u $10 million sanctions- busting arms shipment and Sky Air's role. While Sandline officials claim that a number of civil servants in the Foreign Office and the Ministry of Defence knew about the shipments, the government's ethical foreign policy has taken a severe blow. It is being asked that if Ministers did not know what was happening in their own departments then why were they not informed.
There have also been allegations that British engineers on board the HMS Cornwall helped Sierra Leone mercenaries to repair a helicopter. But Mr Cook, who faces questions about the alleged shipments in the Commons later this week, has denied British forces aided the mercenaries. He has insisted that the engineers were part of a humanitarian force and were simply co-operating with a local militia force to enable the British to continue their mission.
"There was no ministerial approval for the activities of Sandline. There was no policy to support any mercenary involvement to overturn the junta in Sierra Leone," he said yesterday.
However, the shadow foreign secretary, Mr Michael Howard, seized upon Mr Cook's failure to deal with the central questions involved in the affair, insisting it was "incredible" that ministers were not informed by their officials of a "clear campaign" to mount a coup in Sierra Leone.
The Tory leader, Mr William Hague, also asked embarrassing questions of the Foreign Office. Demanding to know if ministers were in control of their own government, Mr Hague said: "Either they're not telling us the truth or they have been extraordinarily idle and ineffective in trying to control their department."